“In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention). For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!”

‘No such thing’

It’s a frightful message and those worried that Facebook will own their photos or other media are posting it — unaware that it is a hoax. Here’s the truth: Facebook doesn’t own your media and there is no such thing as the Berner Convention. (There is a BerneConvention!)

“We have noticed some statements that suggest otherwise and we wanted to take a moment to remind you of the facts — when you post things like photos to Facebook, we do not own them,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement. “Under our terms (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms), you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings.”

‘Don’t bother posting’

Brad Shear, a Washington-area attorney and blogger who is an expert on social media, said the message was “misleading and not true.” He said that when you agree to Facebook’s terms of use you provide Facebook a “non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any content you post. You do not need to make any declarations about copyright issues since the law already protects you. The privacy declaration [in this message] is worthless and does not mean anything.”

Bottom line? Don’t bother copying, pasting, and posting. It was a hoax before and is still a hoax now.

Have you fallen prey to these “copyright” hoaxes on Facebook before? Tell us about other forms this hoax that you know of!

Right now, the U.S. government is tracking the movements of private citizens by GPS, reading private citizens’ emails, and possibly even reading what you’re saying on Facebook. It does so all in the name of law enforcement and Homeland Security, of course — but whether or not that makes you feel safer is up to you.

1. The NSA is building a massive data center in Utah to read every email you’ll ever send.

If leaked information about the complex is correct, nothing will be safe from the facility’s reach, from cell phone communications to emails to what you just bought with your credit card. And encryption won’t protect you — one of the facility’s priorities is breaking even the most complex of codes.

If you’re curious about what goods the FBI has on you, you can always submit a request to view your own personal file. It is worth noting, of course, that the government doesn’t profile everyone — just certain people of interest.

Unless you play around with your Twitter and Facebook privacy settings, just about anything you say is public. Essentially, the government wants to read through your tweets and status messages to see if there’s any information that might help in detecting threats.

4. Your ISP may soon be required to keep files on what sites you visit.

That’s exactly what the Hawaii state legislature proposed this January with H.B. 2288 and companion bill S.B. 2530. The bill, sponsored by State Rep. John Mizuno (D), “requires internet service providers… keep consumer records for no less than two years.” The bill then goes on to specify that these records must include “each subscriber’s information and internet destination history information.” Thankfully, the bills’ sponsors withdrew the offending legislation from debate.

Do you think all the hustle about online data monitoring is necessary or is it just an invasion of privacy? Share your opinions with us!